In less than an hour, any reasonably skilled programmer can write an application that will “skim” – or steal – a consumer’s financial and personal information right off the card utilizing an easily obtained Square card reader. How do we know? We did it.

In less than five minutes, any reasonably skilled kindergartner can devise a system that will “imprint” — or steal — a consumer’s financial and personal information right off the card using an easily obtained Crayola crayon. How do I know? I did it.

I went out drinking with Brent Simmons. Everything after that is kind of a blur.

About a year ago, I happened to be flying in to San Jose on business. As the plane touched down, I did what I always do: take my iPhone out of airplane mode. At some point over eastern California, my friend Alex sent an email to myself and Brent Simmons; he had noticed we were both going to be in the area and suggested we meet up. To be honest, I felt terrible that night. I just wanted to go to my hotel and get some sleep.

I had met Brent once before at Ignite Denver, but only briefly. The opportunity to buy the developer of one of my favorite applications a drink was too good to ignore. So I sucked it up and went out.

It just so happened that Brent was in town for 360|iDev, an event organized by a guy named John Wilker, who I sort of knew in passing and — again, by sheer coincidence — had just become my neighbor. Nobody could have said it better than Wilker himself when he walked up to me outside of the eBay Town Hall that night. “Dave? What the hell are you doing here?”

When Brent and I went out, we were joined by Dan Burcaw and Joe Pezzillo — iPhone developers and friends of Brent’s from, of all places, Denver. Jay and I had just launched Coathangr, the social network for fashion, and I asked Dan how much it would cost us to build an iPhone app for it.

He told me that the conversation couldn’t even start for less than twenty grand, and that we’d be better off doing it ourselves. So we did. And we fell in love with iPhone development. And a year later, Dan’s company acquired us. I guess he was right.

Of course, I’m leaving out an entire year’s worth of blood, sweat, education, experience, and perhaps most importantly, failure. I’ll save those for later posts. So part of it was luck, part of it was the truly awesome iPhone developer community, and a lot of it is owed to my generous and patient mentors. But if I had to trace it back to a single decision that changed everything, it would be going to grab that drink.

The lesson here is that when Brent Simmons invites you out, you say yes.

TechCrunch’s coverage is remarkably insightful:

With so many app developers around the Apple ecosystem, it makes sense for smaller iPhone app developers to pool their resources and talent and consolidate. I suspect we may be seeing more acquisitions and mergers in the near future.

Ding.

Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up.

I would love to know how they came up with that.

Apple joins an exclusive club that includes Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and Wal-Mart Stores. But some analysts are starting to wonder if now may be a good time to sell the company’s stock.

Right before the iPad is released? Those analysts are fucking stupid.

So it’s not too much of a stretch to see Apple’s ad platform in the future being the best way to deliver ads in apps, which might offer perks like, say, location-based targeted advertising, or more dynamic ads than you can do now on an iPhone. It’s also not crazy to think Apple’s way is going to be the only way to get some of those features, like location-based ads.

The point is easy to miss, so I’ll spell it out a bit. Apple’s plan isn’t to remove anyone’s ability to use location data for ads. What Buchanan is suggesting — and the conclusion I came to myself — is that Apple wants to provide those ads themselves.

Rather than pulling ads from any of the countless mobile ad providers, it would be more suited to Apple’s interests for you to get your ads through a framework. Core Advertising, if you will. Developers include a few lines of code and get ad supported lite versions of their apps which conveniently pay out through the same system that cuts the checks for App Store revenue. A single point of payment.

The Gizmodo article also points out Apple’s use of the word primarily. If the only reason you’re using Core Location is to serve ads, you will be rejected. Why? Simple, Apple recognizes the danger of allowing app developers to control overall user experience. Right now, a modal alert pops up when you launch a location-enabled app for the first time. As a user, I see this alert as a layer of privacy protection. My iPhone correctly assumes that I don’t want to share this information with just anyone, and cautions me on a per-app basis.

Now imagine this alert pops for every app.

What Apple doesn’t want is for users to be conditioned to hit OK without consideration, and even less so for users to be inundated with alerts (shades of Windows).

By providing advertising functionality by way of a developer framework, Apple can take a cut of the money, make the process of creating ad-supported apps easier for developers, and distill the user experience down to a single “allow advertising based on your current location” option within settings.

So long as ads not based on location can still be pulled freely from third-parties like Fusion and The Deck, I would view this as a fair compromise.

Assuming a third-quarter ship date, this fruity new wonder could prove to be the hottest item under the Christmas tree. And that means that, come January 2011, IT shops will be inundated with idiot users lobbying to hook their iPads/iSlates/iTablets (iBricks?) into the corporate network.

Using the phrase “idiot users” just threw away what little credibility you had left. It has long been the folly of greasy, surly, under-sexed IT guys to think that the users owed you something. You are there to provide a service. The user is your customer. If you don’t like it, go find another job. The IT guy is not some desirable rock star. You are a commodity, easily replaceable. IT is a cost center, and you aren’t getting paid to be a dick to people.

And those idiot users? There’s a good chance that they’re the ones making the company money.

If the economy means you’re afraid to give your employer an honest evaluation based on this presentation, you’re not a rock star.

You made a “product” to compete with their “product,” tastefully arranging your regiment, only to discover that they hadn’t made a product at all – they made a narrative. A statement about how technology should interface with a life.

See also: the associated comic.